Many fans have been concerned, since Aston Villa's failed promotion campaign came to a conclusion, about the financial position of the club. Some have looked to key figures at the club for clarity over what the future holds for the 5th most successful club in England.

Since the play-off final defeat to Fulham Villa's Owner, Dr Tony Xia, has tweeted twice. Here's how the fans reacted:

Reacting to Xia's first tweet:

Pete Street: "Please don’t give up Dr T. You have gave us the faith, gutted right now, but can’t wait for August."

Virtuous Villa: "Thank you tony, thank you Keith and thank you Bruce for all of your efforts but as we sang at villa park whatever will be will be, we sang that for one night but every game we sing don’t look back in anger and that’s what we’ll do! We won’t look back, we only look forward."

Stoobiee67: "We’ll get it right next season, give youth a chance and unless you get £100 million for Jack, he’s going nowhere!"

Ted Sparrey: "We're on this journey together and we all walk in the right direction. Next year. Champions!"

Reacting to Xia's second tweet:

Paul Nash: "Time for a new era with a new manager who can bring the youth through and install an exciting attacking style of football. You took the gamble on Bruce's defensive, plenty of experience, grind out the results style and it fell short. Wish Steve the best, nice chap."

Sam Williams: "It was a great season but that squad should of gone up... You need to look at where the damage was done... it was our inability to have a plan B in a game... which comes down to the manager. We sat back on games that we were capable of comfortably winning."

Nigel B6: "Hurting with you Tony; but I remain 110% behind our club."

Ant: "Chin up boss we dust ourselves down do what needs to be done puff our chests out and go again. All I ask is get players in with a passion to go above and beyond for us as a club and fans. This team connected with fans this season. Thank you for efforts and roll on August ."

Zulisian: "Keep Bruce, we stumbled but we got here from him. Stay loyal and see what next season brings."

Joanne Price: "We were in a very bad place when Dr Tony took over, he has done a great job and so has Bruce."

Financial fallout

Aston Villa will need to find around £40m-£45m from player sales and wage cuts to fall in line with Financial Fair Play, Birmingham Live understands.

A football finance expert has explained how Villa's failure to win promotion back to the Premier League this term has left them seriously counting the cost this summer.

The claret and blues may have to sell prized asset Jack Grealish to cover costs and there's no chance of turning any of the loan signings into permanent deals.

"The FFP black hole is between £40m and £45m," a source told us.

"Villa have gambled with expensive players on big wages but there will need to be a reality check this summer."

Boss Steve Bruce admitted that cuts will need to be made.

When asked if players would be sold, Bruce replied:

"Yes.

"This season has been difficult, financially.

“We understand, or I have understood, about Financial Fair Play.

"But the discussions will need to be held above me to say what we have or haven’t got."

The powers-that-be are in the process of holding those talks.

Saturday's defeat against Fulham in the play-off final is still very raw but the club are starting to moving forward.

These things take time, of course, and more will be revealed in the times ahead as Villa come to terms with another season in the Championship.

Elsewhere, a report was also published today by Swiss Ramble - a business & football blog- which highlighted some of the problems Villa are facing up to.

Meanwhile another expert says Aston Villa’s predicament is ‘really severe’ and has predicted sales this summer.

Villa were resigned to a third successive season of Championship football with defeat at Wembley.

Bruce’s expensively-assembled squad is now expected to be broken up this summer as the club desperately attempt to stay within Financial Fair Play restrictions.

The club’s most valuable asset, Grealish, is already being linked with a host of Premier League sides with Villa likely to sell at least one of their top players.

Kieran Maguire, a lecturer in football finance at the University of Liverpool, discussed Villa’s problems at length with the BBC.

Cash cuts

“It’s really severe for Villa because this is the second year they’ve had parachute payments. They got around £35million from the Premier League to cushion the blow of relegation.

“Those payments get cut back severely next year so they’re going to have £20million less coming in. I think the problem for Villa is that the owner has gambled in the last couple of years on recruiting players on big wages.

Colossal wage bill

“The average wage at Villa is nearly £30,000 a week and it’s simply not sustainable in the Championship.

“It’s going to be a very big summer. They’re going to have to sell the crown jewels, I suspect. The problem that they’re going to have is that other clubs know they’re in a financial pickle and they’ll be trying to get them on the cheap.

“If you take a look at their first season in the Championship, they were losing around £800,000 a week, and that was on parachute payments of around £40million.

“Next season it’s down to around about £15million so there’s got to be severe cutbacks. I’d be very surprised if John Terry stays because he would have been on a decent wage.

“Scott Hogan has been disappointing and I’ve seen his contract, and that’s eye-watering. Ross McCormack has been a disaster since day one.

“The problem is that no other clubs will go near these players. They might manage to get them out on loan and Villa will probably still have to pay 80 per cent of the wages just to get them away from the club.

Decision time

"Then you have the owner, who’s based in China – he’s going to have to work out whether he continues to bankroll the club to the same extent.

“There’s a lot of alarm bells going round and that’s when the vultures start to crowd and pick off things on the cheap, and that will be the big shame for Villa because they do have some good players.

“If they want to play in the Premier League then fair play to them, but I think it’s whether or not they’ll be able to get a fair price for them which will be the big worry for Villa fans.”

Assessing the summer

Aston Villa’s worst nightmare has become a reality and testing times lie ahead.

The books were balanced, to an extent, last summer by manager Steve Bruce as several players departed to boost the coffers.

Ex-England and Chelsea captain John Terry, Glenn Whelan, Ahmed Elmohamady and Chris Samba were all handed lucrative contracts with the funds raised and Bruce utilised his contacts book to snap up three players on loan.

With five players out of contract, five loanees to return to their parent clubs, six players set to return from loan spells away and lots more to be decided, this is the most important summer transfer window in Aston Villa’s 144-year history.

Dr Tony Xia cut a glum figure as Sky Sports’ cameras zoned in on him during the latter stages of Villa’s play-off final defeat to Fulham.

It hasn’t panned out the way the Chinese businessman planned after buying out Randy Lerner two years ago.

Xia and his trusted Villa Park colleagues face some big decisions this summer.

Who leads Villa?

The first big decision Xia, chief executive Keith Wyness and director of football Steve Round have to make centres around manager Steve Bruce.

By his own admission Bruce has failed to achieve what was asked of him this term.

The manager has previously hinted that he ‘won’t be here next year’ if promotion wasn't achieved.

Meanwhile, during a meeting with Villa supporters’ groups, neither Wyness nor Round committed to keeping Bruce on as manager in the event of Wembley failure.

With four Championship promotions on his CV and an enviable queue of Premier League managers willing to do him favours, Bruce has all the skills Villa require.

“I will roll my sleeves up and get stuck into it again next season as long as the people above me see that I’m fit to do it,” Bruce said of his future in the immediate aftermath of Villa’s Wembley woe. “I will carry on.

“I’ve been doing it for a long time and I’m in charge of a great club with a big history and tradition.”

With Bruce apparently intent on giving promotion another crack, the ball is firmly in the Villa hierarchy’s court.